The Frozen Ground
by dreaminstanatic
Summary: This is a story based on the movie 'The Frozen Ground'. Kate's 19 years old and manages to escape the claws of a series muderer. Rick is the Detective who works on her case. Will he and his team be able to catch the killer or will Kate have to live in fear for the rest of her life? / Caskett AU Story
1. The crazy girl

_Author's note: I'm re uploading this story because I didn't like where it was going anymore and I lost the inspiration to continue with the old story line. I'm uploading the first three chapters now because I only changed very little in them so they have been finished earlier than the others. And the chapters will be longer than before and I hope the story over all is better and easier to follow. Thank you for reading this and please leave a review when you have read the first chapter(s). Thank you!_

_Disclaimer: I own neither the Castle characters nor the movie Frozen Ground on which this story is based._

It was a cold winter afternoon when Officer Esposito was called to a local fast food restaurant outside of the city. He took his jacket and told his partner Ryan to come with him. The two of them just started their police career and weren't aloud to go anywhere by themselves.

When Esposito and Ryan arrived they had to manage to go through a big crowd of teenagers out- and inside the restaurant. The schools were closed today because it had snowed too much tonight to remove it all from the streets so a lot of kids decided to spent their day out here where normally no adults appeared.

Finally at the counter the two officers wanted to know why they had been called and they were told a total crazy girl locked herself in the woman's bathroom a few hours ago and wouldn't come out yet.

"She came inside and was just screaming and crying and ran straight to the bathrooms. I tried to talk to her and make her come out again but she's ignoring everyone so far."

While Ryan decided to stay with the staff to ask him some more questions, Esposito went upstairs to take care of this girl. He knocked on the door and because nobody answered he put his ear against it. All he could hear was someone sobbing in there which was broken by a sudden scream.

"Ma'am are you alone in this room?", he shouted but when he got no answer Esposito took out his gun and kicked to door open. The picture that greeted him was cruel. A young woman, not older than twenty, crouched on the floor which were full of blood splatters. When he turned his eyes back to the girl he noticed where the blood came from. She was handcuffed and must have tried to get those of because her wrist were so sore, Esposito could tell that she must have been in unbelievable pain. He also noticed that she took off most of her clothes except for a top and her panties and she looked like she hadn't slept for weeks. Another scream interrupted his thoughts.

"Get them off! Get this things off my hands, I can't.. get them off!" The young woman held out her arms and started to cry even more. Esposito hurried to find his keys and began to unlock her fetters. After he removed one of the iron rings she didn't let him do the same with the other one but fell right into his arms and began to cry in his shoulder like little girls do when they hurt themselves while playing with other kids. At first Esposito was totally overwhelmed but he held her until she began to calm down.

* * *

Kate, as the girl was named, was taken to the nearest hospital. After a doctor finished checking her up she just sat on her bed, starring at the wall in front of her for at least ten minutes. The door to her room wasn't completely closed so she could hear when the nurse was talking to someone about her constitution. She slowly moved her head and saw that it was the officer who found her but wasn't able to understand anything they said so she stoop up and walked towards the door.

"She has some bruises and marks but they're already a few weeks or months old. The only fresh wounds are the cuts on her wrists.", was all the girl was able to hear before the nurse turned around and told her to go back into her room. She sighed annoyed but went back to her bed and watched the police man while he followed her.

"Please, can I just go?", she begged but he shock his head.

"I need you to come with me to the department. We need to clear a few things up." Esposito looked down on her with pity in his expression but Kate couldn't stand meeting his eyes, so she starred at her hands.

"I.. It's just.. I'm so tired.." Tears began to roll over her face. Esposito sat himself next to her and started to rub his hand along her back.

* * *

Later at the police department Ryan joined Esposito who was watching the interrogation.

"Any news one the guy who she said had kidnapped her?", Ryan asked and his partner began to nod.

"She says she got away when he tried to put her in his plane.. The address, the license plate and everything else she gave us exists but the man says he didn't do it. He had two of his friends over the last two nights and none of them has heard or seen a girl in the house. ", Esposito sighed and turned his face back to the mirror that separated them from the interrogation room.

In there, their boss was asking Kate a million questions. She just looked like she was about to fall apart every minute.

".. so, and than he rapped you, is that right?", the police captain went up and down in the room, watching the young woman sitting at the table in the middle of it.

"I told you already. That was before.. on a bearskin", she answered and wiped away a tear from her cheek. The man stopped walking and eyed the girl up.

"You told the other officer that there was a bed." She just shock her head while biting her lower lip.

"No, I didn't! There was a bearskin on the floor!" Kate's interrogator sat down on the opposite of the table.

"How many times?" She looked at him with shame and needed to take a beep breath before telling him.

"I don't remember, I was passed out most of the time." He made a hand sign which gave her to understand that she should proceed.

"After it he always put a chain around my neck. He wanted to kill me." She couldn't hold herself together anymore after saying the last sentence and started to cry. The captain didn't show any pity for her and just went on with his questions.

"Yeah okay, but why would he wanna put you on a plane?"

"He wanted to take me to his cabin." Still crying, she was happy she was able to even bring out a few words.

"Look, I spoke to this Hal Lockwood. He said he had friends over and now I'm trying to figure out if you were even with him for the last few weeks!"


	2. I believe her

It was four in the morning when Detective Richard Castle's phone began to ring. He left his eyes closed, turned to the other side of his bed and groped with his hands for it. When he found it he lead the hand he held the phone with to one of his ears and answered the call with a sleepy voice.

"Hello?", he asked and one of his co-workers began to speak at the other side of the line. While listening to the facts of a new case Rick sat up and took a hand through his hair.

"Yeah okay. I'm on my way." The detective sighed when he got up to get dressed. He didn't manage to get any sleep before one o'clock that night because his little daughter had a nightmare and wanted him to tell her another story so she could get to sleep again. Now Rick was accordingly tired.

He was in the kitchen drinking a coffee when his mother came down the stairs and looked at him questioningly.

"New case?", Martha asked his son while rubbing her eyes. She got a nod as response.

"I don't know when I'll be home today so you can take care of Alexis right?"

"Yeah of course." , she murmured and turned around to go back to bed.

They had to take the helicopter to get to the crime scene. An eighteen year old girl was found in the middle of nowhere, a forest surrounded by a mountain range. When the cops got off the flying conveyance Rick pulled his jacket tighter to his body because of the icy wind out there. Dr. Perlmutter, the medical examiner, greeted him after he spotted the detective.

"Is that one of the missing girls?", Rick wanted to know right away without even taking a few seconds to say hello.

"Looks like it.", Perlmutter answered, "It's the same jacket she was last seen with but I still have to make some tests. All I can say at the moment is that she laid here for at least six month if not a year already."

"Cause of death?" Rick turned away from the corpse. It really wasn't nice to look at.

"She got shot.." The medic held up a bullet. "..with a hunting rifle."

* * *

At the department Ryan and Esposito were on their way to go out for lunch when Esposito heard the captain laughing about something with another detective. He stopped his partner and indicated him to get a bit closer to the two men. Ryan was kind of confused but went with him.

"So I asked him straight: Did you do this? And he said: You can't believe a prostitute, can you?", the police captain told the other man and both of them started to laugh again. When he saw the two officers he turned to Esposito.

"Oh, you can let the girl go." Esposito tried to control himself. He couldn't believe that his boss was such an asshole.

"But she is telling the truth!", he said firmly.

"She's a prostitute. And you're trying to protect her?" The voice of the captain was threatening and Ryan tried to move his friend and partner away but Esposito resisted.

"Didn't you listen to her? She said she used to be one because she needed the money but she has given this job up over a year ago and I believe her!" Esposito was nearly screaming now. "You should go back in there and try to help this girl instead of sending her home!"

"Listen, Lockwood is an outstanding citizen. He doesn't have a single entry in his file and there's no proof that Kate Beckett was even in the guy's place." With these words Esposito's boss patted him on the shoulder and left him and Ryan alone in the corridor. Ryan wanted to say something but Esposito cut him off.

"Tell her that she can go for now. I have to do something important." He went back to his desk and took up the file but didn't bring it to the archive as he was expected to but went straight to the locker of Detective Castle to put it in there. This guy was the best and Esposito knew that he wouldn't be as prejudging as his boss was.

When Kate came out of the building it was afternoon but already getting dark. She hurried along the main road, looking around the whole time. A few times she bumped into pedestrians but didn't care when they angrily shouted at her, she just wanted to be home already. After she closed the door of her flat behind her she let out a sigh of relief. Kate felt like she hadn't slept for years and went to bed without a shower or changing her clothes or taking off her smudged make-up. All she did before closing her eyes was turning on the TV and taking her old teddy out from under her bed because she was afraid to be all by herself that night.

* * *

When their watches showed 7 pm Esposito and Ryan began to pack their stuff up.

"Whatcha think about going to Remy's for dinner? I really need a burger after today!" Ryan put his bag over his shoulder and looked at his friend, who agreed with his plans. They were only a few steps away from the exit when someone hold Esposito by his arm. He and Ryan stopped walking and turned around to see who wanted something from them.

"You put this file in my locker, right?" The two officers recognized Richard Castle who looked at Esposito expectantly.

"Yes I did." He wasn't sure if the detective was okay with it or not so he added: "I just want to help this girl!" Rick nodded understandingly and led the two of them to his office.

"While reading through the facts of this case I noticed that there are some parallel lines with the one I'm working on right now and three other ones from the past five years.", Rick told them. "The only outstanding difference is that all of the other girls are dead. I can't tell you for sure that it is the same kidnapper and murderer and so I need you both to help me figuring it out." Ryan looked at Esposito when the detective finished.

"I'm not sure if I want to do this behind the back of our boss to be honest." Before his partner could answer Rick began to speak.

"You are not going to do this behind his back. I already told him I need you to help me on the case of the victim we just found. He doesn't need to know that it could have to do with Kate Beckett as long as we have no solid prove."

The three men spend the whole night at the precinct, reading one file after the other. Ryan went down in the archive to look if he was able to maybe find some more cases with similar outlet. Not even thirty minutes passed when he came running back into the office with an excited expression on his face.

"You're not going to believe what I just found!" Rick and Esposito looked up from the notes in front of them and the officer went on after placing another file on the table.

"This woman got kidnapped six years ago. She died in a car accident a few months ago so we can't consult her but right after she was able to escape she told the police the exact same story as Kate did. Nobody believed her at this time because she was a dancer at a strip club." When Ryan mentioned the word 'strip club' Rick listened up. He began to search the files again and finally found what he was looking for.

"I knew I read something like that! All of these girls were dancers or prostitutes. Some of them stopped a few months before they were kidnapped, some of them were still doing it at that time but the fact is: He's looking for his victims in bars and clubs!" When neither Esposito nor Ryan knew what to say he started to close the files and put them in his drawer.

"It's late, I think we all need to get some sleep. Call that girl, Kate, tomorrow morning. I want to talk to her."


	3. Fear

The next day when Rick arrived at the department his new partners were already waiting for him. Ryan nodded at his desk. In the chair next to it Rick could see a girl sitting. She had dark shadows under her eyes and was quite thin which was probably caused by her kidnapping. While biting her nails she looked around the precinct as if she was afraid of something. But in spite of everything the detective thought that she was the most beautiful female human being he had ever seen in his life.

"That's her. And remember, she's still a teenager so don't be too hard on her. ", Esposito said, pulling Rick out of his thoughts. He thanked the two officers for calling her and slowly started to walk over to Kate so he wouldn't scare her. She looked at him when she noticed he was coming up to her.

"Hey, I'm Detective Richard Castle." Rick took a seat at his workplace. A few second passes in which Kate just stared at him before she looked at the photo on the desk.

"How old's your daughter?", she asked softly. He turned his eyes to the photo as well.

"She's four.", he said and had to smile a little by thinking about Alexis. Kate saw the love for her in his eyes and returned the smile.

"Why don't you have a picture of her mum here?", she continued to ask after a moment of silence.

"Because her mother isn't a part of our life anymore. She's chosen her carrier over the family." Kate felt bad for bringing this up. She just wanted to postpone the questions he would ask her sooner or later and didn't noticed she entered his private life very deeply.

"I'm sorry..", she whispered but Rick shock his head.

"It's alright, Kate." He smiled again to show her that he meant what he had said.

"I can call you Kate right?" After watching her nod he began with the interrogation.

"How old are you?"

"Nineteen..", she murmured and began to play with her fingers. Rick could tell that she was really nervous.

"Why don't you just start at the beginning, before my partners found you at the place downtown." Kate let out a sad sigh.

"Okay.." Her voice was shaking but she was going to tell him everything. She was sure that he wanted to help her and was not going to laugh about her experience like the police captain did.

"I was at...", she stopped for a second not sure what to say, ".. a bar that night and at around eleven pm I decided to go home. My flat is not far away from there so I choose to walk instead of calling a cap.", she added and tried her hardest to hold back the tears building up in her eyes.

"When I came around a corner the guy grabbed me from behind and before I was able to scream for help he put a towel on my mouth. A few seconds later everything went black and I woke up at his place where.. he.. he was.. he had already laid hands on me like I was some kind of doll or something.", Kate sobbed and covered her mouth with one of her hands, starting to cry. Seeing her like this broke Rick's heart and he took her other hand in his hoping to make her feel save. She needed a couple of minutes before she was able to go on with her story.

"His eyes.. I've never seen anyone's eyes being that cold before and all these animal heads on the wall.. I saw them and knew this guy liked to kill things." Watching her biting her lower lip Rick noticed that he had tears in his eyes. He couldn't imagine how scared she must have been.

"How did you get away?" Still holding her hand he squeezed it gently.

"I was sitting in the backseat of his car when he drove to an airfield next to a giant lake. I don't really remember where it was but he parked a few feed away from his plane, went over to the water and sat down there. It looked like he was daydreaming or something and I had noticed that he forgot to lock the car so I just began to run and run and I don't know for how long I've been sitting in a bush then. I was just so afraid that if I would come out he would be standing right in front of me. When I finally found the courage to leave my covert I was sure that if I would make it home he wouldn't get away with it. But it looks like he did." Kate let out a small hurt laugh. Her eyes were full of angst, pain but also disappointment and anger.

Without really thinking about it Rick squeezed her hand a little bit harder.

"I promise you that I'll do everything I can to bring this guy behind bars."

* * *

Kate spent the rest of the day walking through the city without even noticing where exactly she went. Her head was full of confusing thoughts she needed to get rid of. She ended up, sitting on the sidewalk edge in a street which was very animated during the night. The moon was already shining when one of the thousands of people who walked past Kate, knelt himself next to her and put an arm around her.

"Why's such a beautiful girl all by herself at this time of the night?", the young African-American asked her. He was obviously drunk and Kate felt very uncomfortable having his arm around her neck, so she pushed him away as far as she could.

"Hey! Are you dumb, bitch?", he started to shout at her. Kate was annoyed and just turned her face away from that man. Right when he wanted to make a step towards her someone got in his way.

"Leave my friend alone okay? Look for someone else to bother, Mike!", a girl about Kate's age squatted next to man, leant forward and whispered something in his ear that made him nodded and get up to leave Kate and the woman, who had just preserved her from that guy, alone. Kate looked up and froze when she recognized the one calling her a friend a few seconds ago.

"Lanie?", she asked in shock. Lanie had shoulder length black hair and was about half a head smaller than Kate. She looked around before she pulled the girl in front of her up on her feed.

"Come on..", was all she said, then she began to make the perplexed girl follow her to the strip club at the end of the street. She squeezed Kates hand for the whole time as if she was afraid her friend could just disappear every minute. The door at the back of the club was open and Lanie looked like she knew where she was going. Inside the building she walked through the corridor with Kate right behind her and into the last room on the left side.

The brunette viewed the little room for a moment. There was a sofa on one wall, a table with all kinds of make-up and a mirror on the other one and a very thinly window on the wall opposite the door. Lanie sat down on the sofa and Kate turned over the chair in front of the table so she could face the other girl that weas looking at her with sad eyes.

"I've heard what happened. Kate, I'm so sorry.", she began and Kate shock her head.

"It's okay. I mean, I came out alive?" Lanie nodded as an answer and took off her coat leaving her in only a bra and slip.

"Lanie? You're really a stripper now?" Kate glared at her friend who started to grin.

"You have no idea how much money you get for it if you're a good dancer. And it's so much fun." She stood up and walked towards Kate.

"You would love it, girl!" Lanie sat herself on the edge of the table and looked directly at Kate handing her a

small plastic bag with a white powdery contents in it.

"All you need to do before going up there is relax.", she winked. Kate threw it away instinctively.

"I'm not doing drugs anymore.", she almost shouted at Lanie.

"I stopped with all of this shit about a year ago. We stopped it together, remember?" Kate jumped from her seat.

"Right, we did it together!", Lanie shouted back. "But you were gone for so long! You have no idea how hard it was to stay strong all alone and how bad I needed this money! You don't know that I couldn't pay for my room any more and that they kicked me out or that one of Bracken's guys stood in front of my door every day and just wouldn't leave me alone!"

Kate felt really sorry for the other girl and all she wanted to do at that moment was hug her as tight as possible and tell her that they would work it out again because they were together now but she was too angry to allow other feelings.

"So now you're saying it's all my fault because I was kidnapped? Guess what, I didn't choose to be held and abused for days! I... " She got interrupted by a scream outside the door. Quickly Lanie check her appearance in the mirror for a last time and turned to Kate.

"I gotta go! We'll talk another time okay?", and without even waiting for an answer she was outside the door. Kate sighed and sat down again, resting her head in her hands. She couldn't believe all of this was happening right now.

Lanie hasn't been strong enough to stay away from that life, she herself has been kidnapped and almost killed because of the mistakes she has made in the past, the man who did this to her was still out there without any kind of penalty and all she could think about since this morning was Detective Richard Castle. No, this wasn't right.

To ban him from her thoughts Kate went out of Lanie's dressing room a few minutes later. Walking along the long corridor she looked for the door to enter the club. It wasn't like she was not still mad at her friend but she didn't felt like going home where she would be all by herself tonight again and Lanie was the only person she could go to now. After finding the right door she entered the other side, looked around and felt kind of uncomfortable in the midst of all these men starring at the half naked girls on the big stage on the right side. After searching the increase for a moment her eyes found Lanie sitting on a guy's lap, making out with him.

Kate sighed and went to get a drink while waiting for the black haired girl to finish. She went over to the bar and ordered a double vodka tonic. She really needed something strong after the last days. A man was sitting a few bar stools away from her watching the girls on stage intensely but Kate didn't pay attention to him. She was busy trying to organize her thoughts.

The bartender placed the vodka in front of her and Kate took a huge mouthful. When she turned around to see if Lanie was still busy with this guy she faced the man who was only a few steps away and directly looking at her at that moment. Kate's hand began to shake and the next second the glass was falling on the floor. She began to panic in fear and stumbled backwards without taking her eyes off the man who just starred at her with fury in his eyes. The brunette bumped against a few people without even noticing it and began to sob aloud. Most of the guest in the club had turned to her wondering who had let this weird person inside. Lockwood used the moment while no eyes where placed on him, looked at Kate for the last time and ran out of the club. As soon as he was out of Kate's perspective she broke down on the floor crying and screaming. Lanie had also turned to the noises and when she saw her friend breaking down she jump from the guy's lap and hurried towards Kate. She knelt beside her and rapped her arms around the thin body.

"Kate! Hey, Kate, what's wrong babe? What happened?", Lanie tried to calm her down afraid that Kate would suffocate every minute because it looked like she didn't even breath during the fearful screams.


	4. Decision

_Author's note: I'd really appreciate some reviews. I like writing but i didn't plan on doing it just for myself._

Richard Castle sat in his office and read through some more files when Ryan came running in without pausing a second to knock, followed by Esposito.

"They found another one!", the irish man said as fast as he could before taking a deep breath, "Just a mile away from the last body."

Rick jumped from his seat and directed the two officers to sit down, while he himself sat on the edge of his desk: "What have you got?"

"There are no finger prints left and the body already began to decay, was about 20 to 25 years old.", Esposito answered the detectives question.

"How did she die?" Rick was sure he already knew the answer but wanted nothing to be left out that might be important.

"Same as the others. Bullet entered front and passed clean through her heart. She also has some more bullets in her legs and lower body, all from behind.", Ryan said and his partner added: "Has been out there for the whole summer, at least 4 to 5 months."

* * *

When Rick got home that night he was more exhausted than normally after a long day at work. This case was tough! And he wanted to find some evidence to put this bastard in jail, not so much for himself or for his hometown to be safe but for Kate, so she could start over again, without being afraid 24/7.

When he unlocked the front door and tried to get in as quiet as possible, his daughter already waited for him on the bottom of the stairs.

"I wanted to wait up for you but gram fall asleep a while ago. You didn't call to say good night.", Alexis said sadly rubbing her eyes and yawned a little.

"Oh. You're right, I'm sorry. Should have called!" Rick went to his daughter and lifted her in his arms, hugging her as tight as possible.

"Don't ever grow up, pumpkin!", he murmured in her hair while he took her upstairs to get her back to bed. Alexis just looked at him but was to sleepy to ask him why he didn't want her to get older so she just laid her head on his shoulder, closed her eyes and nodded a little: "I promise, daddy.."

He was glad he was already out of Alexis' room when his phone began to ring.

"Yeah?", the detective asked as soon as he answered the call. What he had to hear disturbed him and he jumped from his bed he had just sat down on, almost letting his phone fall.

"No! Don't let her leave!" Rick almost screamed into the handset.

"I really don't care how, cancel the flight if you have to. Just don't let her leave!" He hastened to put on his jacket and ran out of his bed room. On his way to his car he decided to call Ryan and Esposito even though it was late he wanted them to come because he could not be sure that he would find her by himself.

Half an hour later the three men arrived at the airport and went straight to the waiting room, after Rick had told the officers what was going on. They saw Kate sitting on one of the seats facing the window towards the airfield.

"Kate!", he called her, happy that she was still there and not in the plane above the Atlantic. The young woman looked up, widen her eyes in shock and got up as fast as possible, trying to escape. She hadn't even even taken six steps when Rick stood already in front of her, trying to block the way. Kate looked at him frightened and turned around to ran away in the other direction. But before she was able to react the officer who had found her a few days earlier and another man she had never seen before stopped her from running past them. Knowing that it was impossible to get away now Kate sighed and turned her head towards Rick with an expression that showed him that it would be hard to break through to her now, because she was not only scared but also pissed that him for not letting her go.

Rick nodded at his partners and the understood immediately. He wanted to talk to the girl by himself. The officers showed Rick that they would wait there in the waiting room if he needed them while he took Kate to the little cafeteria down the hallway. They sat themselves down and Rick ordered two hot chocolates for them and asked if she wanted something to eat which the brunette ignored. The first few minutes went by silently while Kate continued to stare out of the window again. After they good their hot drinks the detective decided to break the hush.

"Where's your family?", he asked softly. Kate let out a little unamused laugh.

"Why the fuck do you care?", she answered truculently. She was not going to tell him her back story, she only knew this guy for about a day. But as annoyed as she might was, she didn't want the counter question to come out that harsh. It was just a very sensitive topic she has never talk to anyone about since she left her home 4 years ago.

Rick sighed and decided to not talk around it and start with the main reason why he was her immediately, so he rummaged for some pictures in his bag and placed them in front of her after he found them.

"Kate, listen to me! You know what? I think you got away for a reason. These other girls..", Rick pointed on all of the pictures on the table, ".. weren't that lucky!" Kate began to play with her fingers but didn't take her eyes off the view outside the window what made the man sigh.

"Without you, all I have is a presumption. That's not enough! You promised me to make a statement this morning, remember?" Finally, Kate took a deep breath and turned towards the pictures. One of them caught her attention and she took it in her hand.

"I've seen her before.. she always had a smile on her face..", the girl murmured and placed the the photo back on the table, not Rick nodded in understanding.

"Look, I can't make you stay. You can still get on a plane but the only way to stop this is with you. With you helping me!" Leaning back in her chair Kate was biting her lower lip.

"What if he gets away with it? He will come and get me if I stay here!", she argued and starred at the man sitting in front of her.

"He won't, trust me!", he started and reached for Kate's hands across the table. He squeezed them tightly what made the brunette look him in his eyes, the first time since he got to the airport.

"I promise Kate, I promise that nothing's going to happen to you!"


	5. Wanting to forget

_Author's note: Thank you very much for the reviews, keep it up! But If you have a problem with drugs being mentioned you should probably not read this chapter. Otherwise, enjoy reading._

Kate had agreed to stay in town but wasn't happy with that decision at all. Before Rick came to the airport she could only think about getting on that plane and getting away from everything. That's what she always did. Get away from bad situations at fast as possible to not be confronted with stuff she didn't want to be confronted with. She had talked about her bad habit with Lanie multiple times in the past and had told herself to stop running away and rather face her problems. That thought had come to her mind when she had been packing the most important things in her bag to not waste any time and get to the airport as fast as she could.

But in this case it's different, she had told herself. In this case there's a murderer out there who wants me dead.

When Rick had begun to talk about the fact that only she could stop this and make sure that the guy would get what he deserves, she couldn't continue hiding behind her thoughts anymore and let him change her mind.

Kate hadn't done something like that for a very long time, let some one else tell you what to do. But with Rick it was different. He seemed to understand he rand to not just tell her what to do but make it sound like a beg, so that she was still the one to decide what to do. Over the past few years she hadn't met a lot of people like him, she had to be honest with herself, no one like him. She began to really trust him, what made her feel safe in a way but also unsure and careful because she had been hurt way too often to let somebody make her open up just like that.

But now, that she was on her way to meet Lanie, she already regretted not getting on the plane and just disappear. Rick had wanted to drive her home but she insisted to walk because she wanted to be alone, at least that's what she told him. She actually had wanted to get away from him to clear her thoughts and make herself sure about what she felt and wanted to do. When she was half way to the block she lived at she had begun to turn around every fife seconds. She felt like she was being followed but on account of all the people and cars that were on the streets on a friday night, she couldn't tell if one of them was watching her or not.

That's when she couldn't bear the thought of being home alone, all by herself in her room and decided to ask Lanie if she could stay at her place for the night. She hurried down the street still looking over her shoulder from time to time. Luckily the club Lanie worked at wasn't that far from Kate's flat so she hadn't got to walk the whole way back she had already passed.

Since she didn't want to risk going through the front where she couldn't be sure to not come across Lockwood she decided to enter the building through a side door. When she found the door all the dancers used to get inside she was worried it could may be locked, so the happier she got when she noticed that it wasn't. Kate opened the door and was almost inside when some one called her from behind.

"Hey!", a muscular man, who seemed to be a bouncer, said with a undefinable undertone.

"You're the new girl?", he came dangerously close to Kate. "Didn't know they got such a hot one."

The brunette tried to ignore him and wanted to keep going but was stopped by the man who accessed past her and shut the door again.

"Not so fast, you little slut." Before she could react, the bouncer had pushed her hard against the what made her gasp for air for a second.

"How about you give me a little show out here first so I know you're not some unimportant bitch trying to fool me.", he added with a knowing smile while he ripped her coat open and laid a hand on one of her breast. Kate tried to push him away with all strength she had left after not sleeping for more than 24 hours but he just put one arm over her throat and press her against the wall again.

"Get away from me!", she screamed and felt the panic rise inside of her. The man let out a laugh and lets his hand wander down her body. Kate kept gasping for air and tried to hold back the tears but couldn't hold back an out coming sob.

"No.. Please..", she began to beg.

This can not be happening, she thought. Not again!

Then she closed her eyes, trying to blend it all out like she did it the last few times. She waited and waited but nothing happened, so she opened her eyes again and didn't see the man's but Lanie's face in front of her. She hadn't even noticed her coming out of the door with some of the other girls to take a quick break for a cigarette, getting the man's attention and threatening him to tell the boss everything. All the people working at the club knew that the owner was very sensible when it came to his girls and so his job was more important to the doorman than a quick think with this girl.

"You okay?", Lanie asked worried and wiped away some tears from Kate's cheek. She nodded a little and Lanie began to lead her inside. Getting in her dressing room she sat Kate down on the small sofa.

"What are you doing here?", she wanted to know. Kate took a deep breath and pulled a hand through her hair.

"I just wanted to wait for you here and ask if I could stay with you tonight when this guy..", she stumbled and Lanie took her friend's hand in her's to comfort her.

"No, I mean what are you doing here? After you were gone that fast yesterday all I got from you was a short text, telling me you would be out of the city for a while! What stopped you? Do you know how worried I was? I thought this was all because of our fight and that you would do something stupid, I don't know."

"I'm sorry.", Kate whispered. "I was at the airport already but then the Detective I told you about.." Again a scream from outside the door interrupted them. Lanie sighed but got up and let go of Kate's hand.

"Just wait here for me, we'll talk later!", and she was already out of the room.

After Lanie was gone Kate just sat there for a while, starring at the little table to her right. She couldn't believe that all she had tried to forget had been about to happen again. It had felt like she hadn't been able to breath, like getting rapped wasn't bad enough already so she had also been about to suffocate. Why couldn't she just forget about all the events from the past weeks? Why couldn't she just forget it all?

That's when the little packets, some with the white powder others with some pills came into her view.

No!, she told herself. You are stronger than that, Kate Beckett! You will get through this without falling back into your old habits. You told Lanie to stop it just yesterday, how bad will it look if you take that shit yourself now?

But she still had the packet in her hands a minute later and the powder scattered on the table another one later. The other packet with all kind of different pills was open and Kate took it slowly into her hand.

Without really realizing it she put all the pills in her other hand and finally into her mouth. It was disgusting and for a moment Kate had to fight the urge to throw it all up right away but she closed her mouth as tight as possible and swallowed it all little by little. Then she turned her attention back to to stuff on the table.

With every passed minute she cared less, even though she couldn't hold back her tears anymore. She just wanted all the pain and the unbearable fear to be gone. It didn't matter to her what helped to forget, she just wanted it all gone!

A sudden sneeze stopped her from her thoughts. It hurt, why did it hurt that bad to sneeze? A second later when she saw all the blood in her hand she knew why. Kate pulled her sleeveless a little longer to hold it under her nose. But it just didn't stop bleeding, it felt like it just got more and more.

She tried to get up, to get some help but she was too weak to even get herself to stand. But it wasn't just the weakness, her whole body was shivering. Kate began to panic for the third time on that day already. All she had wanted was to forget, that was all!

Now she couldn't even keep her eyes open anymore, not speaking of keeping her head up. Her upper body fell to the ground. Normally a brunt like that would have hurt but at this point Kate didn't feel any physical pain anymore, only the psychical was still there.

Please, it can't end like that. I survived being kidnapped and raped, getting beaten up and taking drugs before. That isn't how I planed it, I don't want to die like that!, was all that went through her head at that moment.

Kate slowly reached for her coat that laid a meter away from her on the floor, so she used her little strength that was left and dragged herself towards it. When she had her phone in her left hand she fell on the floor again and couldn't get up anymore. With her shaking fingers she unlocked the display and dialed the number she last saved on her phone. She didn't even had to wait five seconds before the one on the other end picked up the call.

"Castle!"

"Please help me..", Kate whispered with a trembling voice before everything around her went black.


End file.
